Question: A circle passes through the point $(0,1),$ and is tangent to the parabola $y = x^2$ at $(2,4).$  Find the center of the circle.

[asy]
unitsize(0.4 cm);

real parab (real x) {
  return(x^2);
}

draw(graph(parab,-3.5,3.5));
draw(Circle((-16/5,53/10),13*sqrt(17)/10));

dot((0,1));
dot("$(2,4)$", (2,4), E);
[/asy]
Solution: First, consider the tangent line to the parabola at $(2,4).$  The equation of this tangent is of the form
\[y - 4 = m(x - 2).\]Setting $y = x^2,$ we get $x^2 - 4 = m(x - 2),$ or $x^2 - mx + 2m - 4 = 0.$  Since we have a tangent, $x = 2$ is a double root of this quadratic.  In other words, this quadratic is identical to $(x - 2)^2 = x^2 - 4x + 4.$  Hence, $m = 4.$

Let the center of the circle be $(a,b).$  The line joining the center $(a,b)$ and $(2,4)$ is the perpendicular to the tangent line, which means its slope is $-\frac{1}{4}.$  This gives us the equation
\[\frac{b - 4}{a - 2} = -\frac{1}{4}.\]Since the points $(2,4)$ and $(0,1)$ are on the circle, they must be equidistant from its center. The set of all points equidistant from $(2,4)$ and $(0,1)$ is the perpendicular bisector of the line segment joining $(2,4)$ and $(0,1)$. Therefore, the center of the circle must lie on the  perpendicular bisector of the line segment joining $(2,4)$ and $(0,1)$. The midpoint of this line segment is $\left( 1, \frac{5}{2} \right),$ and its slope is
\[\frac{4 - 1}{2 - 0} = \frac{3}{2}.\]Hence, $(a,b)$ must satisfy
\[\frac{b - 5/2}{a - 1} = -\frac{2}{3}.\]So,
\begin{align*}
b - 4 &= -\frac{1}{4} (a - 2), \\
b - \frac{5}{2} &= -\frac{2}{3} (a - 1).
\end{align*}Solving this system, we find $(a,b) = \boxed{\left( -\frac{16}{5}, \frac{53}{10} \right)}.$